Meatless Protein in the Morning

Good morning (well, to those in the same time zone as I am in)! While all the party food was fun, it had to end at some point. Especially because I couldn’t really eat most of it! I’m on day 12 of my new program and have to wait 3 more days to even take my measurements or weigh myself. A little bit torturous.

One of the biggest challenges I have faced in the past couple weeks is finding a way to have protein at breakfast. I’m not a big meat in the morning kinda gal and it’s rare that I have enough time to cook an egg properly. I’m hoping to do some large batch cooking this weekend to have myself better prepared, but until then, I still have to eat!

My family goes through yogurt like water. Well, maybe not water, that was a bad example. Now that I am keeping track of all the food and water I am taking in, I have learned that I rarely, ok…never, drink more than about 16 oz. of water a day. Isn’t that bananas? That’s going to have to change. Back to yogurt. We all eat yogurt daily. I love vanilla or Greek, Jy loves Activia or DanActive, the boys love any kind of yogurt I give them. This week I bought a giganto tub.

See the big, fat one? It’s half the price of the smaller containers of yogurt and about a fourth of the individual cups. The only downside is the fact that it is plain and no one around here gets too giddy over plain yogurt.

I bought a large bag of frozen strawberries to blend into a couple batches of yogurt. One batch will be blended on the thin side, so the little guys can suck their yogurt out of a straw a la Danimals or other sugar loaded yogurt. The upside is that this brand’s plain flavor isn’t too tart as many Greek yogurts are, requiring no sugar to be added in. Although, I may add a little honey to up the ante.

Back to my morning protein.

I’ve been having 1/2 cup oatmeal with fruit, flaxseed, a splash of milk and a bit of sweetener. I always thought oatmeal was plenty of protein for the morning, but I have been wrong. For the mornings I don’t feel like having an egg on the side (almost every morning), I either have yogurt or cottage cheese. But wait, I’ve pimped out my yogurt!

1/2 cup plain yogurt (regular or Greek)

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 T. cocoa powder

1 tsp. honey

Mix and enjoy! You’ll feel like you are eating pudding for breakfast and will enjoy the sustaining benefits of the protein found in yogurt and the added bonus protein in the powder, not to mention the antioxidants of the cocoa powder and honey. That is a good morning!